Day 135

So the first 200K challenge is very close to being done.  Missed hitting 180K today by just a little (curse you free donut at work).  Because of that I'm looking both ahead at what to do next, and behind to see what's changed.  That'll probably be a theme over the next two weeks or so as well.  So in honor of looking back a bit first I thought I'd include a couple of pictures of where I was before this all began:

Me in 2005 or so.  Probably 300 pounds.

I still have that t-shirt.  Though now it's gotten a little too big.  I still like wearing it to exercise just for the label, but I can honestly say it no longer fits.  It's a 3XL shirt by the by.  Within a year or so of this picture being taken I went on my first big diet.  Went from 300 pounds down to around 250.  Since then I floated up and down around there, though I only got down to 240 once in that time.

This next picture is me after my half-marathon last year:

Shayna and I walk/running a half-marathon in 2011.
Don't forget to support me this year at the link at the top of the page.

As you can see I've dropped a fair amount of weight between the pictures, but at this time I'm still around 250 or so.  The 2XL jersey I'm wearing is a little tight, and my gut is straining to bust out.  I still finished in 3 hours and 10 minutes.  When I looked at the first picture my reaction was, "Holy crap I was fat!"  This one surprised me less.  I know this guy pretty well, and up until October this was pretty close to what I looked like.

October 25, 2011 - 5 days into the diet

And this is me at the start of the diet in October.  At the start of the diet I weighed 265 pounds, this is a few days in so I might be down to 260 here.  Even so, this guy is very recognizable.  Sad to say, but looking back I used to have hair.  Sigh.

I'm going to try and get a couple current photos over the next couple days.  Wish I had thought to do a bit more of them during the diet proper, but there's some Christmas ones at least from around the half-way mark.

Food today:  egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (300 calories), a doughnut as a snack in the morning (300 calories), two slices of cheese pizza for lunch (600 calories), penne sauce and garlic toast for dinner (1000 calories).  Exercise was an hour on the treadmill after work (861 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  2200
Exercise:  861
Points Earned:  1661
Total Points Earned:  179888
Points to go:  20112

Day 6

Going out to eat with people without going off the diet.  Not difficult necessarily but not exactly easy either.  At lunch today I went to Subway with friends, which ran the risk of eating way too much (if I got the meatball sub I'd usually get), even more so since I'd already eaten the lunch I brought with me.  Luckily, nobody thought it was weird that I just hung out.

I think the real tactic for going out is to generally know what you're ordering and trying to pick a dish with a fairly controlled amount of calories.  At most restaurants the salads are as unhealthy (or occasionally more unhealthy) than any of the other dishes on the menu, so it's not as simple as that. 

Eat what will be satisfying rather than what looks to be the "healthy" choice, just try and maintain the portion control.  At a place like Subway, go with the 6 inch rather than 12 inch.  At a Red Robin or equivalent, get a simple burger rather than crazy toppings.  At 5 guys don't get the large fries.  Looking at the nutritional information they post shows that the average meal is still going to be too big, but it'll be 1300 calories rather than 2000.

I'm sure there's other choices (don't eat the bread, ignore the fries, get the cup of soup or the side salad), but for me I think there's not much point to going out someplace if you're not really going to enjoy what you eat.

Cheerios for breakfast (300 again), Turkey sandwich for lunch (500), Salmon, noodles and green beans for dinner (900), plus about 100 calories worth of snack.

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  1800 calories
Exercise:  0
Points Earned:  1200
Total Points Earned:  8200
Points to go:  191800

Day 4

Had friends over to play games today, and so was faced with the challenge of snack food at the table.  In the end it mattered less than I was worried about, as the snack food ended up filling the role of lunch.  Didn't get a chance to get out today though.

Food for the day was an egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast (500 calories), snacks during gaming (400 calories) and whole wheat penne with 4 cheese sauce and garlic toast (900 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  1800 calories
Exercise:  0
Points Earned:  1200
Total Points Earned:  5500
Points to go:  194500

Day 3

So I've started reading a diet book that was recommended to me:  "The Dark Side of Fat Loss: Lessons from the Underground."

I haven't finished the book as yet, but it has an interesting theory behind it.  At it's most basic level it challenges the whole calories in vs calories out weight loss plan.  A little difficult for me, since that's the whole strategy I'm basing this challenge on.  The basic concept seems to be that the key to fat loss is the foods you're eating rather than the calories you're bringing in.  The book gets a little holistic as well, focusing on organic foods, grass fed meats, and largely avoiding grains and oils altogether.  The author calls it his "Just Eat Real Food" strategy.  Primarily this means eating the types of food that would have been available before the rise of agriculture.

I'm not sure how much I believe it.  The book makes its case by focusing on the science of human body chemistry.  I don't know enough about that subject to make an objective opinion of the science they're using.  I can say that I lost 50 pounds on a diet based on calorie counting and exercise in the past, so calorie counting can work.  Whether it would work as well as this strategy I don't know.

I think I'm going to give it a try when my current groceries run short.  I'm still going to count the calories and earn points using my system, but I may see how this new strategy interacts.  I'll let you know how I did.

No real breakfast today.  For lunch I had a grilled cheese (500 calories), for dinner it was Chicken Tenders with Fries at Ikea (1000 calories).

Today's Results:
Daily Food Total:  1500 calories
Exercise:  0
Points Earned:  1500
Total Points Earned:  4300
Points to go:  195700

Day 2

The big challenge with a diet at any time is the shift in how I eat, particularly between meals.  I'm used to simply grabbing snacks at work, like chocolate, or chips.  If I get hungry I don't worry about it.  As a result of that I tend to eat my lunch a little earlier in the day.

Going into the diet though, means cutting back on that a lot.  I did go grab a snack size Hershey's bar from a co-worker today, but I limited it to just the one snack.  Even so I was very hungry when I finally got home (had to do some stuff at my parent's house before making dinner).  As a result I was tempted on two levels.  The first was simply to stop at a McDonald's or some other fast food.  Getting home, I was tempted to make a really big meal and pig out.  Luckily I'm only two days into the diet, and was able to maintain the focus.  Going forward though I do need to identify some healthy snacks that I can have that satisfy the cravings, without adding to calories.

Cheerios for breakfast (300 calories with milk), a turkey sandwich for lunch (500 calories), a chocolate bar and a slice of cheese for snacks (call it 200 calories again), and whole wheat penne with four cheese tomato sauce (Classico brand) and two slices of garlic bread (Pepperedge Farm) (about 900 calories total).  I also took a walk at lunch time, and then later took my sister's dog for a walk (the online calculators vary, I'm guessing 200 calories of exercise).

Daily Food Total:  1900
Bonus Exercise:  200
Points Earned:  1300
Total Earned:  2800
Points to Go:  197200

The 200,000 Calorie Challenge

So I was sitting at 5 Guys tonight, eating way too much food and thinking about how I wish I could lose some weight.  I've been heavier than I am now, in the past, but my weight has been slowly climbing since I got another office job.  My unplanned attempts at diet and exercise just haven't been working.


A few years back (following a friend's surprising comment on my weight) I sat down, started tracking my food intake and exercising.  I lost 50 lbs.  Then I started to regain that lost weight.  I've never really been able to be that effective since then.  I've counted calories in the past, I've exercised.  Hell, last summer I ran/walked a half-marathon.  I've just never been able to discipline myself enough to actually lose weight, even when working at it.  I just like large amounts of junk food too much.

So here's the challenge.  I'm not shooting to lose a specific amount of weight.  I'm not swearing off a particular type of food.  I'm not suddenly going to start a crazy exercise plan.  Instead I'm going to cut, or burn, 200,000 calories!

The rules are relatively simple.  Based on some basic review of my eating habits and exercise, I currently average somewhere around 3000 calories taken in, per day.  I also walk about 1.25 miles per day to work and back.  So that's my baseline of exercise.  For every calorie I eat in a day less than that 3000 per day, I get one point closer to my goal.  Also for every calorie burned through additional exercise beyond the walk to and from work, I get one point closer to my goal.  When I reach 200,000 points I win, and get myself an overpriced, fancy toy of some sort as a reward (haven't exactly decided that, once I do it'll get posted here).

Of course if I eat more than 3000 calories in the day that gets subtracted from my total points.  A trip to 5 guys could cost me days worth of work.  Also to make this interesting I'm setting myself a time limit of 9 months to do this in.  That's enough time that I can cheat every now and then, and don't have to cut my diet down to potentially dangerous levels to win.

This blog is primarily intended to force myself to track this stuff, and to keep thinking about the goal.  If anyone ends up reading it though, I'm more than happy to listen to some suggestions on strategies, meal plans or anything else.  Otherwise it'll just go off into the ether of the internet, and that's fine too.

Tomorrow's day 1, which means that I'll have until July 19th of 2012 to score 200,000 points.  Let the games begin.